Tweeters:

Covered Fir Island yesterday morning and the birding was quite productive,
with about 85 species present. Too bad September has to end so soon!

A. Skagit WMA hdqrts: montane migrants are joining our other passage sp.
Highlights:

couple Warbling V
couple Hammond's Fly
couple Hermit Thrush
Swainson's Thrush 2 (not late)
Varied Thrush 1
7 warbler sp. but no rarities or notable concentrations, no Mac (where are
they?)
6 regular sparrows
CASSIN'S FINCH 1**
Evening Grosbeak 3

**The CASSIN'S FINCH was viewed closely in a mixed flock of Purple Finches,
Yellow-rumps and other sp. right at the entrance where the road forks,
feeding in a Bitter Cherry (Prunus emarginata) grove. All details--fine
streaking on underparts, eye "tear", indistinct facial pattern vs. Purple
female, straighter and longer culmen, longer primary projection, streaked
undertail coverts, whiter underparts, among others--were observed. Two
Purple females harassed the bird anytime it came close, allowing for easy
comparison but causing the bird to get rather skittish after a minute or so,
I lost it after it began to perch deeper in the foliage.

Cassin's is unique (according to my data) for Skagit County lowlands in
Sept. As elsewhere in wWA, there are a very few other lowland reports, but
typically they occur much later, November in particular (the last downslope
Skagit bird I know of was a single in Mt. Vernon in early Nov. about five
years ago, Wiggers). Sequim has very rarely had Nov.-Dec. reports also.

B. MANN X WYLIE RDS. just north of entrance to Skagit WMA--this place was
absolutely alive with birds, with recent rains on ploughed fields drawing a
remarkable crowd:

Pectoral Sandpiper 9
BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPER 1 (juv. in w/Pecs)
Budgerigar 1 (?! Someone's lost pet, landed on a telephone pole amid
Starlings/RW Blackbirds)
Violet-green Swallow 500 (includes birds flying over adjacent fields)
BANK SWALLOW 1 (juv. perched on telephone wire w/other swallows)
Barn Swallow 200 (includes birds flying over adjacent fields)
large numbers of blackbirds, starlings, many Savannah Sp around

Note: Buffs, once hardly known in Skagit Co, have shown annually for the
last few years. Fir Island seems to be the spot. This bird seems to be the
latest for the county.

C. HAYDEN (SNOW GOOSE) PRESERVE--quiet but for a lone TURKEY VULTURE,
Peregrine, and a recently-fledged Virginia Rail. Nothing going at the
Skagit City farm pond either.

D. JENSEN--there were two notable species here: a basic-plumaged CLARK'S
GREBE out on the bay, viewed through the scope, and a very cooperative
VESPER SPARROW that stayed loyally along the entrance road. These are both
represented by no more than 5-6 previous entries for the county, although
Vespers were apparently common in the early 20th century. I first found the
Vesper at about 9:45, but returning at about 11 and then 11:30, the bird was
still present, even landing on the entry road itself with Savannahs. This
was unexpected for a species that I had until then missed and is very
difficult to find in Skagit Co (even Lark Sparrow has been reported more
often in the last ten years!) The only other recent Vesper report was
Colin Thoreen's from last year in Nov, also on Fir I.

There were also 12 more Pectoral Sands, a few other regular shorebird sp,
several pipits, and many more swallows (V-G and Barn).

E. NORTH FORK of SWMA--not much here, but:

large number of W. Grebes on bay
Baird's Sandpiper 1
Am. Pipit 25-30
Lapland Longspur 4

Last note for vulture-watchers: I had a southbound flock of 8 more TURKEY
VULTURES over the Marysville Middle School Saturday morning, Sept. 18. That
was the bright spot of a practice that couldn't lift us (later) past the
Lake Stevens Irish, to whom we fell, 20-12.

Scott Atkinson
Lake Stevens
mail to: scottratkinson at hotmail.com

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